“In return,” I read, “Arthur Vance shall be given sole administrative oversight of the church land trust, and Kade Miller shall guarantee forty-five thousand dollars a year in business deposits to First National Bank.”

I flipped the page over and spotted four words in faint pencil in the bottom margin, written in Margaret’s tidy script.

He never did you harm.

“She didn’t leave you forty-five years ago because she’d stopped loving you,” Wade said, his voice careful and low.

“She left because Arthur threatened to send you to the state penitentiary before you ever set foot in a pulpit.”

The room seemed to close in around the desk as the weight of those words came down on me.